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Climate chaos certain if oil and gas mega-projects go ahead, warns IEA chief
(The Guardian, 12 May 2022) Fatih Birol says ‘carbon bombs’, revealed in Guardian investigation, will not solve global energy crisis.
The world’s leading energy economist has warned against investing in large new oil and gas developments, which would have little impact on the current energy crisis and soaring fuel prices but spell devastation to the planet.
Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), was responding to an investigation in the Guardian that revealed fossil fuel companies were planning huge “carbon bomb” projects that would drive climate catastrophe.
He said countries must seek to replace Russian oil and gas in the near term without damaging their long-term prospects.
“I understand some countries may look at new fossil fuels but they should remember it takes many years to start production,” he said. “[Such projects] are not the solution to our urgent energy security needs and they will lock in fossil fuel use.”
Revelations by the Guardian show nearly 200 carbon bomb projects are in planning, or have already started pumping, that will each result in at least 1bn tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over their lifetimes, equivalent to about 18 years of current global emissions.
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